Shortage (Best Laid Plans Book 2) (24 page)

She was just starting to stir when he finally acted, sliding off the bench to one knee next to her as she stared at him with moonlight reflecting from her wide eyes. He couldn't read her expression, which in a way made it easier and harder at the same time as he pulled the ring out of his pocket with trembling fingers. He'd asked his mom for it that morning, and gotten it after a torrent of happy congratulations and spontaneous hugs.

Sam's eyes were locked on the small twinkling stone as he raised the ring between them. “Samantha Hutchins,” he began solemnly, trying to keep his voice steady. “My life has been better from the moment you scared me half to death that night in the campus parking lot months ago.” She made a quiet sound that might have been a laugh or a sob. “And ever since then I can't imagine living without you. I love you. Whatever the future holds I want to live it with you.”

He held the ring up a bit higher, noting the way her eyes sparkled a much as the diamond itself in the moonlight. “Will you marry me?”

For a breathless moment she was silent and his heart was in his throat, and then her small hands wrapped around his. “Yes,” she said in a soft voice, then laughed. “It's about time.”

Grinning exultantly, Matt awkwardly slipped the ring onto her finger in the dark. The band was a bit big, but she didn't seem to mind as she brought it up to look at it closer. Then Matt stood and lifted her to her feet, kissing her.

When he finally broke away she put her head on his chest. “Whatever the future holds,” she murmured. “I've felt the same way for a long time. Whatever comes we'll handle it better together.” She abruptly pulled away, and in the dark he caught the white flash of her teeth as she grinned up at him. “Should we go in and tell everyone?”

* * * * *

The party had been winding down, but when Matt and Sam came in and she gave the news to the rest of the family by happily displaying her engagement ring everyone exploded into a new celebration. Aaron and Paul were overjoyed that their Aunt Sam was really going to become their aunt, and they kept randomly coming up and giving her hugs for the rest of the night. So did his mom and sister, for that matter.

When things finally wound down and everyone went up to bed Matt and Sam stayed on the couch for their usual quiet evening conversation, where they seriously talked about things like wedding dates and what their future together would hold. Both agreed that there was no reason to drag the engagement out too long, although there were things they had to consider when it came to the timing.

One thing was going to get the cache. Matt had planned to bring Terry and go for it right after they finished moving, leaving his dad, mom, April, and Sam to watch the shelter. He'd been thinking in terms of the trip delaying the wedding, but Sam insisted that she wasn't going to be left behind to worry about him this time. He tried to argue about the danger and that they didn't want to take too many people and leave the shelter unprotected, but she wouldn't budge.

“I'm going,” she insisted. “Besides, with three people we'll be able to pull the wagons faster, and if we fit everything in two of them we'll always have the third person free to stand guard.”

Matt couldn't argue with that, or the fact that Sam was better able to protect them now. While he'd been recovering from Razor's wound over the last week he'd finally got a chance to give Sam her wish, when he not only offered to teach her, Terry, and April to shoot but practically insisted they learn, and as soon as possible. He'd taken the time to do a bit more target practice himself.

There wasn't much ammo to spare for it, but thankfully learning to hit things with a rifle, especially a good heavy one with a bipod, good recoil absorption, and a scope like his dad's reclaimed .30-06, was easier than learning to shoot a pistol. He planned to leave that rifle behind for defending the shelter and see if he could borrow a lighter rifle for the trip, to go along with the shotgun he'd given Terry and his own .40, as well as the revolver Sam had claimed from the looter that he'd also helped her practice with: although she was still working to get over anticipating the recoil her aim with it wasn't terrible.

He hoped to borrow an assault rifle in the .223 caliber, but even with that lighter firearm he was a bit concerned about Sam being strong enough to aim the rifle while standing, or even in a kneeling or crouched position. Out on the range just outside of town they'd practiced with his dad's large caliber rifle resting on a sturdy support, kneeling or prone. He'd have to help Sam get used to holding it in the aiming position long enough to shoot, and with any luck on the trip she could work at it and strengthen her arms enough before she really needed to use the weapon.

All of this was reasoning himself around to accepting her offer to come along. All other considerations aside, Matt honestly didn't want to leave her for any amount of time either. He knew it would be risky, and the thought of her coming to harm made his heart freeze, but the route his dad had found was a fairly safe, isolated one. And arguably nowhere was truly safe these days.

So he told her yes.

The next morning they got packing. To his surprise when he went to tell Jane's refugees that they'd soon have a home Tom Harding insisted he and his son would help them move. Matt thanked them but refused, since they couldn't pay the father and son for their help, but the two men weren't motivated by that. They wanted to get their group moved in as soon as possible, antsy staying in the town storehouse under the suspicious eyes of the men guarding the supplies in the backroom.

Matt still refused, although politely. They wouldn't be taking any furniture and what they were taking would only need a few trips with the wagons, their own plus the one they'd borrowed to go after the cache. It wasn't that he necessarily distrusted the man or his son, but he wanted to keep the location of the shelter a secret both for his family's sake and out of respect for Lewis and Trev. Instead he encouraged them to join a hunting party and find food, and that soon enough their group would be able to move into a furnished house.

Jane was showing small signs of improvement, with every indication that she'd be up and about after a reasonable amount of time with no permanent damage. When Matt talked to her she offered to join the town's defenders on a patrol route once she was strong enough, as well as any available hunting parties too on her days off.

After what he'd seen from her Matt had no issue with the idea, but since he'd turned over protection of the town to Chauncey Watson in his absence he told her to seek him out once she was healed. He also warned that he was taking the town's doctor so she needed to really make sure she
was
healed before pushing herself.

Their neighbors were oddly incurious, both about them moving and about Matt and Terry's planned trip. Not that Matt and his family spread either of those things around, but those they did tell didn't even ask where they were going or why. Matt didn't know whether to be worried or relieved by the lack of prying, although he trusted that Catherine had things in hand if anyone turned out to be untrustworthy.

When they took their first load out to the shelter his dad climbed the hill to check the observation post first thing. He loved the way it had been set up so the two people the recessed space accommodated could either lie prone or kneel with rifles firmly planted on a low, sturdy sandbag wall that ran the entire way around the shallow hole. His dad even joked semi-hopefully about the chances of a deer finding its way past the hunting parties and wandering right in rifle range of the relatively isolated shelter. Especially at night.

Matt appreciated the thought, but he wouldn't complain if four-legged animals kept their distance if it meant the shelter was spared the approach of two-legged animals as well.

While they unloaded and went for the next load of possessions his mom got to work in the shelter, lighting a fire in the big stove at the back of the room and opening the vents to air the place out. The next time Matt and the others brought a load out they found the sleeping area curtained off into rooms and everything they'd already brought packed away in chests at the foot of the heavy cots in each room. They were able to unload the wagons directly to where the things were supposed to go on that trip, which took slightly longer but meant less work overall.

It turned out that even though they were moving from the home they'd lived in most of their lives, when it came down to it his parents didn't have too many possessions they strictly needed to take with them. They brought photo albums, the fine dishware and silverware, their clothes, some of their blankets, other personal things, and anything else that might prove useful. But in the grand scheme of things a lot of their possessions they left behind, packed into boxes up in the attic trusting that Jane's group would respect their property, but not terribly concerned if any of those nicknacks were stolen.

As for the furniture, his mom definitely
didn't
want to lose it, but she had to trust that the refugees would take care of everything while living there. She had a long conversation with Jane about it before the redheaded woman's group moved in, and seemed satisfied with things after that.

In the early afternoon the move was complete. They were in the shelter and the refugees were in their house. The last thing they did for the move was lock up their new underground home and hike back into town to go over the house one last time and officially welcome the refugees in, give them a tour, and do what they could to help them get settled in.

Then they returned to the shelter to do their own settling in, exploring the space, doing a bit of cleaning, cooking dinner on the new stove, and finally preparing to sleep in their new beds. Matt was a bit disappointed to realize that even with heavy curtains too much sound got through for him and Sam to continue their usual habit of staying up talking quietly, and everyone ended up going to sleep earlier than usual in a sort of uncomfortable silence interspersed by the occasional goodnights. The boys even made a game of it, shouting goodnights loud enough to be heard everywhere in the shelter until their mother scolded them into silence.

The next morning Matt went over the route his dad had taken, making sure Sam and Terry knew it as well as he did, and then they loaded up their wagons with food, tarps, and camping equipment for the trip, along with their weapons and ammo, and headed out. He'd worked out a deal with Catherine to acquire an AR-15, something between renting it and purchasing it, along with a couple hundred rounds of .223, a spare magazine, and the equipment to clean it. He'd pay for the ammo with food when they got back, and the rifle itself he'd use for his duties protecting the town once he resumed them.

It was a generous deal he was happy to accept, and he felt a lot more comfortable about the trip with the assault rifle slung across his back and his Glock at his hip as they set out, with Terry carrying his shotgun slung on his back and Sam with her revolver in a holster on her belt. They were well armed, their route was isolated and fairly safe, and they were all in fairly good shape.

Fingers crossed if they were careful and made good time they'd all be back soon with every single bit of food in the cache.

For all their worry the trip was a fairly uneventful one. The weather turned cold, the days were long and full of walking that tested Matt's injured leg until it grew stronger, and the hills they passed through seemed oddly deserted no matter how carefully they searched. They saw no sign of any of the people his dad had encountered, either hidden or no longer there.

They did see a few deer on the way up, and there was quite a bit of debate about whether to bag one. Matt argued for it, while Terry argued that they'd end up transporting the meat all the way up to the cache and back and it would be nearly as much work as benefit. Not to mention that even in the cold weather there was no guarantee it wouldn't spoil. Sam had a more pragmatic argument, that none of them knew how to field dress or quarter a deer even if they brought one down, and learning might take a lot of time and risk providing less meat and possibly even tainting it.

In the end they left the deer behind to hopefully wander closer to Aspen Hill for the town's hunters to bag. Matt agreed that their focus should be moving as quickly as possible.

The trip up didn't take long. They reached the cache on the third day and checked the highway, which looked eerily abandoned of any traveling refugees. Small surprise in the cold. Matt almost thought the state of Trev's car was funny at this point, when every time he saw it it was in worse condition. His dad was right that someone had burned the interior, leaving it a gutted hulk.

The cache remained hidden, and it didn't take long to dig it up and load everything that remained in the wagons. Matt was a bit concerned to see that after what had already been taken from it what remained wasn't quite the limitless bounty he'd hoped for. Still, with care and finding other ways to supplement their diet it would hopefully be enough to last the family through the coldest months.

It would have to be.

They split the food between the wagons so each carried about two hundred pounds, not an impossible weight but certainly one that required extra strength to pull. Especially over long periods of time over rough roads. Sam was able to manage the weight with a bit of effort, however, which would make a difference on the trip back since they'd have three people to pull the wagons instead of two.

There were other things in the cache that Trev left behind, either by accident or because he didn't think he'd need them and they were heavy or bulky, including various useful camping items and a few blankets. They took those as well.